DOCSLIB.ORG

French Influence on English Culture in the Second Part of the Seventeenth Century. Aphra Behn As a Creative Translator and a Mediator Between the Two Cultures

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
French Influence on English Culture in the Second Part of the Seventeenth Century. Aphra Behn As a Creative Translator and a Mediator Between the Two Cultures CUI:I'UKA, I,I~NClUA.lliY I~I!I'KRSIINI)\CI~N/ CUIJURE, LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION . lSSN 1697-7750 . VOL Iv \ 2007, pp. 241-251 KIIVIS'IX IOII IlS?UIlIOS CIII:I'LIKAI.I3S Iül! 1.A UNIVERSITAT JAUME I / CULTURAL STUDIES JOURNAL OF UNIVERSITAT JAUME I French Influence on English Culture in the Second Part of the Seventeenth Century. Aphra Behn as a Creative Translator and a Mediator Between the Two Cultures VIO1,IS'L"SA 1'ROYlMOVA UNIVICKSI'I'Y 01' SAINT PETERSBURG A~~w't<ncn.:This article applies the concept of horizontal and vertical cultural transfers to lhc proccss of cultural exchange between France and England in the Restoration pcriod (1 660-1 688). It focuses on Aphra Behn as a mediator between French and Bnglish cultures by analysing how she negotiated the <<cultural>>,gcnder and creative clcn~cntsin hcr translations from the French. Keyword,~:English Restoration period, Aphra Behn, cultural transfer, translation, cult~lralmcdiation. RI?SIIMHN:En este articulo se aplica el concepto de las transferencias horizontales y vcrticalcs al proceso de intercambio cultural entre Francia e Inglaterra durante el pcriodo dc la Rcstauraci6n inglesa, centrándose específicamente en la figura de la cscritora Aphra Behn como mediadora entre ambas culturas a través del tratamien- to de 10s elcmcntos creativos, culturales y de genero que la misma realizaba en sus traducciones del francb. Pulrhms clai~e:Aphra Behn, transferencia cultural, traducción, período de la Resta~~raciói~inglesa, nlediaci6n cultural. Analyzing the psocess of cultural exchange, it is reasonable to distinguish between hsrizontd and vertical cultural transfers. Horizontal cultural transfer irnplics spatial diffusion and occurs among people of the same social group. Vcrtjeal cultural transfer transgresses social borders (Roeck, 2007). In the present arliclc I shall discuss the problem of cultural transfer, which is inseparable from tbe problcm of cultural translation. 242 cLll:lUKt\, I,IJNOUAII', Y III?PRCSI~NIS\CI~N/ CULIURE, UNCUAGE AND REPRESENTATION lSSN 1697-7750 VOL IV \ 2007, pp 241-251 In thc second half of the seventeenth century we can find an obvious exarnple OT horizontal cultural transfer between France and England at the time of the Restoration (1660-1688). It is generally acknowledged that there was a profound influence of the French culture on the English Restoration culture due to the fact that the English king Charles I1 and his court had been refugees in France for ncarly 20 years, having adopted French tastes and French manners. Moreover, (rt11c ascc~~dancyof France was to be the dominant characteristic of late seventeenth- ccntury Europc; C.. .] it can be said that up to the 1680's France was the sole great power ia ELI~o~c>>(Jones, 1978: 95). So, there are at least two reasons for the crfraneophilizing>>of the Restoration culture: the personal acquaintance of English aristocraey with French culture during the Revolution and the Republic (thc 1650~)~and the political influence of France on English affairs in the Restoration period. Such clcar-cut explanation, however, operates only on the surface. A closer cxamination of the historical and artistic circumstances in that period shows that thcrc was a lime difference (a lag) between the outcomes of the French influence on English ast and literature, and the outcomes of the French political influence. My concerli is primarily with literature, but I will start by examining architecture and decorativc art in the first place. French trends in English architecture did not reveal themselves before 1675. Italian High Renaissance models (epitomized, to a large extent, in the works of thc famous liiigo Jones) gave way to French (and also Dutch) motives. Whinney and Millar (1 957: 204) consider that ciit is not possible to trace this evolution in a ncat progression of buildings, nor to find precise historical reasons for changes of stylc. [. .] Strong baroque elements appear in architecture and decoration about 1680. I11 the latter they are, no doubt, due to the arrival of Antonio Vcrrio>>.'Howevcr, it is impossible to believe that this painter could modify Christopber Wren's concept of exterior design, even though at least three great P~nchpicces of arehitecture left their mark on English architecture: Versailles (I 661 -1674), thc Invalides (the 1670s), and the east front of the Louvre (begun i11 1668). While both French and Dutch, as well as Roman styles, are used during the sanlc years and often in the same buildings, icthe result is an architecture which is ncither Italian, French nor Dutch baroque, but a [. .] mixture of the tl~rcccombined with elements borrowed from none, which are peculiarly Bnglish (Whinney and Millar, 1957: 204). French elements in the period between 1675 and 1690 are present in the works of Robert Hooke: the fagade of Bedlam Hospital in Moorfields (1676), Lord Conway" house at Ragby, and Montagu House in Bloomsbury (the first I. Iltllian by origiti, enrolled i11 the Royal Academy in Paris. VIC)I.I?I"I'A 'TKOFIMQVA Aphra Behn as a Creative Translator and a Mediator 243 and thc last did not survive). In 1683 Christopher Wren started the construction of Winchester palace, which was never finished. Its plan is linked with Le Vau's Versaillcs showing Cbarles' 11 dependence on France in the late period of his reign. An cxcellent example of cultural transfer is Windsor castle (particularly its rcconstruction in the 1680s when a number of new elements were introduced), revealing that Charles I1 occasionally showed an interest in the Arts. Architccturally, as Whinney and Millar (1957: 209) point out, crthe most novel fcature o€ the castle was perhaps the entrance to the new royal apartments,,. Thcrc were two vestibules, the ceiling of the first one supported by two rows of Ionic columns, the walls behind them being decorated by niches which contained (<ancicntbusts~; the second one adorned with casts of antiques, behind which rssc the grand staircase. This was a stone staircase in three flights with an ironwork balustradc, which stood within a painted ha11 and was surmounted by a painted domc. Whinney 'and Millar (1957: 210) calls it cdhe first grand painted staircase, executed in England, and its impact on the visitor, emerging from the relatively low, colurnned vestibule, must have been tremendous,,. The King's staircase, diiTcrcnt in forrn, was probably modeled on the new Escalier des Arnbassadeurs at Versailles, finished in 1679. To the beauty of this palace much was added by thc ornan?ent of Grinling Gibbons, one of the best decorators of that time. I will rcturn to Windsor later. If the appearance of French elements in English architecture is connected with thc building of Versailles and the eastern fa~adeof the Louvre, the French infl~rencein the applied arts, for instance, in furniture, grew after 1685 (the canccllation of the Edict of Nantes), when French masters carne as refugees to Etlgland. As for painting, it was much more touched with the Dutch influence (cxemplificd by the works of Sir Peter Lely, Dutch by origin, and Kneller): in fact, there was a strong opposition to French elements in painting in England, as wcll as to the French masters, who were invited by pro-French royal mistresses. To sum up, there is a disparity between the political and historical aspects of thc French influenee on English art and the process of cultural transfer linked with thc construction of Versailles and, to some degree, with the cancellation of thc Edict of Nantes, during the Restoration period. In literature the picture is sornewhat other. The strong influence of French literature on the English one is explicit from the second quarter of the century and is revealed in the numerous translations of pseudo-heroic romances: L'Astrée by Honore d7Urfe;the works of Gomberville; Cmad Qrus ttnd Clelie by Madeleine de Scudery. These long fantastical romances, whieh epitomized French aristocratic culture, influenced English prose fiction widcly. Even the most original English romances, like Partenissa and Aretina by Sir Georgc Mackenzie, were written using French romances as a pattern. 244 C!Lil,lUkA, I.l:NGLiAlc Y KBPKBS~NTACI~N/ CULIURE, LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION ISSN 1697-7750 VOL IV \ 2007, PP 241-251 As Gcrmninc de Stael (in Lefevere, 1992: 18) said, crif translations of poetry enrich literature, translations of plays could exert an even greater influence, for thc theatcr is truly literature's executive power>>.Severa1 important French plays had been translated into English before the Restoration: Corneille's Cid was presentecl before Charles I as early as 1637; and Andromede by the sarne author was translated in 1650. The Restoration gave a new impulse to French drama in English. Four pieces by Corneille were translated in the first decade of the Rcstoration (the 1660s): Horace and Pompée (1663), Heraclius (1664) and Nicolaccic (1 671), the first two crmade English>>by the important woman writer or thc scvcntecnth century, Katherine Philips. In the 1670s Racine's plays were translatcd into Bnglish, Andromaque by John Crowne in 1675, and Berenice (in thc English version Titus and Berenice) by the famous playwright Thomas Otway in 1677. There were also many adaptations of Molihe's cornedies, and thcir ial'lucnce is revealed even in such specifically English plays as The Country Wife (I 675) and The Plain Dealer (1677) by William Wycherly. French philossphical works were also translated into English in the second part of the scventeenth century, like Pascal's Provinciales (1657) and Montaigne" Essais, the latter translated by the poet Charles Cotton in 1685. In prosc, thc most prominent piece of translation is Rabelais's Gargantua and P(zntngrue1, carried out by Thomas Urquhart in 1653. Thomas Urquhart also proposcd in his Logopandecteison (1653) a universal language, already showing thc cos~nopolitanapproach - a characteristic feature of the future Restoration pcriod.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer?
    Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Reformer? A History, with an Examination of Several Plays and Fictions By Florence Irene Munson Rouse in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master ofArts in English May 12, 1998 Thesis Adviser: Iit. William C. Home Aphra Behn: Libertine? Or Marital Refiormer? A Histqry with an Examinjation ofSeveral Prays and Fictions This Thesis for the M.A. degree in English by Florence Irene Munson Rouse has been approved for the Graduate Faculty by Supervisor: Reader: Date: Aphra Behn was an important female vliter in the Restoration era. She wrote twenty or more plays which were produced on the London stage, as well as a dozen or more novels, several volumes ofpoetry, and numerous translations. She was the flrSt WOman VIiter tO Cam her living byher pen. After she became successful, a concerted attack was made on her, alleging a libertine life and inmoral behavior. Gradually, her life work was expunged from the seventeenth-century literary canon based on this alleged lifestyle. Since little factual information is available about her her life, critics have been happyto invent various scenarios. The only true understanding ofher attitudes is found in the reading ofher plays, not to establish autobiographical facts, but to understandher attitudes. Based on the evidence inher many depictions oflibertine men in her satirical comedies, she disliked male libertines and foundtheir behavior deplorable. in plays and poetry, her longing for a new social order in which men and women micht love andrespect one another in freely chosen wedlock is the dominant theme. Far from being libertine, Aphra Behn is an early pioneer for companionate marriage.
    [Show full text]
  • FRENCH INFLUENCES on ENGLISH RESTORATION THEATRE a Thesis
    FRENCH INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH RESTORATION THEATRE A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of A the requirements for the Degree 2oK A A Master of Arts * In Drama by Anne Melissa Potter San Francisco, California Spring 2016 Copyright by Anne Melissa Potter 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read French Influences on English Restoration Theatre by Anne Melissa Potter, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts: Drama at San Francisco State University. Bruce Avery, Ph.D. < —•— Professor of Drama "'"-J FRENCH INFLUENCES ON RESTORATION THEATRE Anne Melissa Potter San Francisco, California 2016 This project will examine a small group of Restoration plays based on French sources. It will examine how and why the English plays differ from their French sources. This project will pay special attention to the role that women played in the development of the Restoration theatre both as playwrights and actresses. It will also examine to what extent French influences were instrumental in how women develop English drama. I certify that the abstract rrect representation of the content of this thesis PREFACE In this thesis all of the translations are my own and are located in the footnote preceding the reference. I have cited plays in the way that is most helpful as regards each play. In plays for which I have act, scene and line numbers I have cited them, using that information. For example: I.ii.241-244.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn Edited by Derek Hughes and Janet Todd Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 0521820197 - The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn Edited by Derek Hughes and Janet Todd Frontmatter More information The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn Traditionally known as the first professional woman writer in English, Aphra Behn has now emerged as one of the major figures of the Restoration. During the 1670s and 1680s, she provided more plays for the stage than any other author, and greatly influenced the development of the novel with her ground- breaking fiction, especially Love-Letters between a Noble-Man and his Sister, and Oroonoko, the first English novel set in America. Behn’s work straddles the genres: beside drama and fiction, she also excelled in poetry and she made several important translations from French libertine and scientific works. The chapters in this Companion discuss and introduce her writings in all these fields and provide the critical tools with which to judge their aesthetic and historical importance. The book also includes a full bibliography, a detailed chronology, and a description of the known facts of her life. The Companion will be an essential tool for the study of this increasingly important writer and thinker. derek hughes is Professor of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen. In addition to many articles on Restoration drama and its back- ground, he has published Dryden’s Heroic Plays (1980), English Drama, 1660– 1700 (1996), and The Theatre of Aphra Behn (2001). He was the general editor of the six-volume Eighteenth Century Women Playwrights (2001), and has just completed an edition of early modern texts concerning slavery and America, which includes Behn’s and Southerne’s versions of Oroonoko.
    [Show full text]
  • The Absence of America on the Early Modern Stage by Gavin R. Hollis A
    The Absence of America on the Early Modern Stage by Gavin R. Hollis A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Valerie J. Traub, Chair Professor Michael C. Schoenfeldt Associate Professor Susan M. Juster Associate Professor Susan Scott Parrish © Gavin Hollis 2008 To my parents ii Acknowledgements In an episode of The Simpsons, Marge urges Bart not to make fun of graduate students because “they’ve just made a terrible life choice.” This may be true, but one of the many advantages of this “life choice” is that I have met, been inspired by, and become firm friends with an array of people on both sides of the pond. The first debt I owe is to my advisors at the University of Michigan, who have seen this project through its many stages of confusion and incoherence. Mike Schoenfeldt, Scotti Parrish, and Sue Juster have been supportive, critical, rigorous, inventive, and excellent company. My biggest debt of gratitude is owed however to Valerie Traub, the chair of my dissertation committee, whose influence on this project and has been, and I hope will continue to be, immense. I’m also indebted to faculty at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and at The Shakespeare Institute who have shaped me as a scholar before I made it these shores. I am especially grateful to Peter Holland, who, it is no exaggeration to say, taught me how to read Shakespeare. Thank you also to John Jowett, Drew Milne, and John Lennard.
    [Show full text]
  • Masking the Drama: a Space for Revolution in Aphra Behn's the Rover and the Feign'd Courtezans XVI Ciclo Dipartimento Di F
    UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA Masking the Drama: A Space for Revolution in Aphra Behn’s The Rover and The Feign’d Courtezans Arena Tiziana Febronia Tutor: Prof.ssa Maria Grazia Nicolosi XVI Ciclo Dipartimento di Filologia Moderna Acknowledgments Acknowledgments I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the supervisor of my thesis, Professor Maria Grazia Nicolosi, for her incisive reading and valuable feedback during these years. I am humbled by her unwavering faith in me. Her ground-breaking work in this area has led me to reconsider the direction of my research many times throughout the writing process. Her expert supervision at every stage of my dissertation writing helped me to persevere when faced with academic and personal challenges. I am very fortunate to have had such outstanding role model. I would like to thank my parents. My mother’s love, faith, wisdom, and dedication have greatly inspired me. My loving father, my sister, my brothers and my boyfriend have also been my strongest supporters, encouraging me to persevere in my academic goals despite life’s challenges. ii Table of Contents Abstract.........................................................................................................................................iv Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1: The Power of Representation: the Political Use of the Theatre in the Seventeenth Century. ……………………………………………………………..……………....................
    [Show full text]
  • 4 Contextualizing Aphra Behn: Plays, Politics, and Party, 1679-1689
    4 Contextualizing Aphra Behn: plays, politics, and party, 1679-1689 Melinda Zook The recent explosion of interest in the seventeenth-century English playwright, novelist, and poet, Aphra Behn, has led to numerous and diverse explorations of her life and work. Behn's colorful if often mysterious life has been the subject of five biographies and the stuff of at least two novels.1 She has been celebrated as one of the most prolific and popular playwrights of the Restoration and an early practitioner of the novel.2 Scholars have portrayed her as a thorough-going feminist, a libertine and an opponent of the domestic tyranny of patriarchy, and an abolitionist, writing one of the first anti-slavery novels in Western literature.3 Despite the recent avalanche of scholarship, little has been written 1 George Woodstock, The Incomparable Aphra (London: Boardman, 1948); W. J. Cameron, New Light on Aphra Behn (Auckland: The University of Auckland Press, 1961); Maureen Duffy, The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn, 1640-1689 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1977); Angeline Goreau, Reconstructing Aphra (New York: Dial Press, 1980); Sara Mendelson, The Mental World of Stuart Women: Three Studies, chap. 3, "Aphra Behn" (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987), 116-84. I know of two novels about Behn: Emily Hahn, Purple-Passage: A Novel about a Lady both Famous and Fantastic (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1950); Ross Laidlaw, Aphra Behn - Dispatch 'd from Athole (Nairn: Balnain Books, 1992). 2 Behn wrote at least seventeen plays, fourteen prose fictions, several translations, and two volumes of original poetry. Judith Phillips Stanton has demonstrated that Behn was the second most successful female dramatist writing between the years 1660 and 1800.
    [Show full text]
  • Restoration Theatre
    England 1660 - 1700 The English Civil Wars 1642–1651 Also called the Great Rebellion Fought between… Royalists – supporters of King Charles I and his son/successor, Charles II Parliamentarians, aka Puritans, aka Roundheads (Roundheads? I’ll explain in a moment) 1649 – Charles I is captured, tried, and beheaded 1651 – Wars finally end with the flight of Charles II to France The Commonwealth 1651 – 1660 Roundhead leader Oliver Cromwell establishes authoritarian control over Great Britain; this era known as the Commonwealth 1658 – Oliver Cromwell dies; His son succeeds him, but is ineffectual. 1660 – Charles II resumes the throne, thus the House of Stuart is restored Hence, the years to follow are known as the Restoration period (until abt. 1700) EFFECT ON THEATRE The prevailing Puritan morality of Cromwell and the Parliamentarians leads to the outlawing of theatre from 1642–1647 It is then vigorously suppressed from 1649–1660 [Loophole: “musical entertainments” were not banned] The Globe Theatre is torn down Interiors of other popular theatres are dismantled Law is passed ordering that all actors be apprehended as “rogues” (dishonest, untrustworthy, unprincipled scoundrels) Actors still surreptitiously perform throughout this period Often officials were bribed to look the other way Theatre Returns! Upon his Restoration in 1660, Charles II almost immediately reversed Puritan sobriety by encouraging the kind of entertainment and theatrical activities that he had seen during his years of exile at the French court One of the
    [Show full text]
  • A Re-Examination of Spectacle and the Spectacular in Restoration Theatre, 1660-1714
    Changing Scenes and Flying Machines: A Re-examination of Spectacle and the Spectacular in Restoration Theatre, 1660-1714 Lyndsey Bakewell A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University October 2015 ©Lyndsey Bakewell, 2015 i Abstract Changing Scenes and Flying Machines: A Re-examination of Spectacle in Restoration Theatre, 1660-1714. Key words: Restoration Theatre, Spectacle, Plays, Machinery, Scenery, Costumes, Performers, Puppetry, Automata, Special Effects. This thesis builds upon the existing scholarship of theatrical historians such as Robert D. Hume, Judith Milhous and Jocelyn Powell, and seeks to broaden the notion of the term spectacle in relation to Restoration theatrical performances, as defined by Milhous as scenery, machinery, large cast sizes and music.1 By arguing that we should not see spectacle in Restoration theatre merely in terms of machinery and scenery, as some have done, but that it properly includes a wider range of elements, such as puppetry and performers, the thesis contends that spectacle on the Restoration stage was more of an integral aspect of theatrical development than previously thought. Through drawing on the wide aspects of theatrical presentation, including setting, stage use, mechanics, costumes and properties, puppetry and performers, this thesis examines how the numerous aspects of the Restoration performance, both in their singularity and as a collective, provided a performance driven by spectacle in order to create an appealing entertainment for its audience. In order to navigate and appreciate the complexity of theatrical performance in this period, the thesis has been divided into key aspects of theatrical presentation, each of which are argued to offer a variant of spectacle.
    [Show full text]
  • Lady Libertines, Female Fops, and Lady Julia Fulbank: Aphra Behn's Extraordinary Female Characters
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2011-06-16 Lady Libertines, Female Fops, and Lady Julia Fulbank: Aphra Behn's Extraordinary Female Characters. Sarah Audine Amundsen Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Amundsen, Sarah Audine, "Lady Libertines, Female Fops, and Lady Julia Fulbank: Aphra Behn's Extraordinary Female Characters." (2011). Theses and Dissertations. 2653. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2653 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. i LADY LIBERTINES, FEMALE FOPS, AND LADY JULIA FULBANK: APHRA BEHN‘S EXTRAORDINARY FEMALE CHARACTERS. By Sarah A. Amundsen A Thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Megan Sanborn Jones, Chair Darl Larsen Eric Samuelsen Department of Theatre and Media Arts Brigham Young University June, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Sarah A. Amundsen All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT LADY LIBERTINES, FEMALE FOPS, AND LADY JULIA FULBANK: APHRA BEHN‘S EXTRAORDINARY FEMALE CHARACTERS. Sarah A. Amundsen Department of Theatre and Media Arts, BYU Master of Arts Aphra Behn has, throughout her life and subsequent years, been both demonized as a writer of bawdy and licentious plays and poetry as well as being hailed as the forerunner of female writers.
    [Show full text]
  • Princes, Power, and Politics in the Early Plays of Aphra Behn
    PRINCES, POWER, AND POLITICS IN THE EARLY PLAYS OF APHRA BEHN by JESSICA KATE BENTLEY PIRIE A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English Literature College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham February 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract My thesis explores Aphra Behn’s early plays and their portrayal of monarchical power within the political contexts of Charles II’s reign. The plays are studied chronologically, beginning with The Young King – which Behn claimed she wrote in c.1664 – and continuing through the first four of her works performed on the Restoration stage: The Forc’d Marriage, The Amorous Prince, The Dutch Lover, and Abdelazer. These works have been largely neglected by previous Behn studies, dismissed as experimental forerunners of her better-known works, like The Rover. By contrast, this thesis argues that these plays contain complex analogies of the political concerns and events troubling Charles II’s reign. Behn is popularly remembered as an ardent monarchist and staunch supporter of the Stuart crown.
    [Show full text]
  • Aphra Behn (1640-1689)* by Janet Todd
    Aphra Behn (1640-1689)* by Janet Todd Aphra Behn was England’s first major professional woman writer. Living in the Restoration, she wrote at least nineteen plays, some good, some indifferent, but all fast paced and theatrical. She also authored one of the earliest English novels, Love-letters between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684-1687), as well as short stories, several volumes of poems and two scientific translations from French. She knew and wrote for Nell Gwyn, John Dryden, the Earl of Rochester and the Duke of York and was both famous and notorious in her time. To some she was ‘the Ingenious Mrs Behn’ and to others ‘a lewd harlot’. She was largely forgotten in later centuries, but when she was remembered, she evoked extreme responses. Virginia Woolf wanted flowers to fall on her grave for having given women the right to speak their minds, while eminent Victorian ladies and gentlemen dismissed her as disgraceful and vile. Now, much sustained interest is brewing in her and her works, which are being reprinted in paperback. My biography, The Secret Life of Aphra Behn (1996), has just appeared and her plays are being performed, including The Second Part of the Rover, staged this year in England for the first time since 1681. In the last decade, Behn has been canonized as the ‘First Lady of Cultural Studies,’ because of her overwhelming interest in race, gender and class. Although the Old Guard of English Literature grumbles at the phenomenon, believing that she is part of the debasement of the subject, she is, I suspect and hope, here to stay.
    [Show full text]
  • THE RISE of the LIBERTINE HERO on the RESTORATION STAGE by JAMES BRYAN HILEMAN (Under the Direction of Elizabeth Kraft)
    THE RISE OF THE LIBERTINE HERO ON THE RESTORATION STAGE by JAMES BRYAN HILEMAN (Under the Direction of Elizabeth Kraft) ABSTRACT Structured in the style of a printed play of the period (though with only three acts), this study focuses on the proto-libertine hero in the plays of the restored stage of the 1660s and on the plays from whence he sprang. My goal is to revise the thinking about this figure, to cleanse him, and the times that produced him, of centuries of cultural effluvia by taking all these accumulations into account. He attained the zenith of his cultural career during the 1670s; his best representations, outside of the poems and the lives of noblemen such as the Earl of Rochester, are on the stage. In a sense he represents and embodies the last full flowering of the aristocracy before the commercial classes and their characteristic, Idealistic, Christian-humanist, bourgeois modes of thinking came to dominate English culture and to alternately effeminize and demonize this figure as ―the Restoration rake.‖ His Epicurean Materialism also parallels the rise of experimental science, though his fall does not. I examine his practice and the theory that informs him, his emphasis on inductive, a posteriori reasoning, the fancy-wit that combines sensations and ideas in order to create new conceptions, his notion that desire for largely physical pleasure is humanity‘s (and even women‘s) primary motivation, and his valuing the freedom to act and think contrary to ―official,‖ moral constraint, often in subversive, playful, and carnivalesque ways. This character‘s primary dramatic precursors are featured most prominently in the plays of John Fletcher, the most popular playwright of the seventeenth century, but also in those of James Shirley, Sir John Suckling, and Thomas Killigrew.
    [Show full text]